The present invention relates to an apparatus for lighting a wheel on a vehicle. A lighted wheel makes the vehicle more visible from the side, particularly at night.
Manufacturers have relied on passive reflectors to make vehicles more visible from the side. Typically, governmental regulations require that these reflectors be red or yellow in color. Reflectors merely reflect any light directed at them, they do not actively project light. In the dark, a vehicle having side reflectors tends go undetected until the headlights of an approaching vehicle strike the reflectors. Thus, light may not strike the reflectors until a collision is imminent.
Some vehicles include parking lights on the sides of their bodies. Parking lights actively project light rather than merely reflect it. Therefore, parking lights generally make the vehicle more discernible than reflectors. A battery stationarily mounted on the vehicle provides electrical power for the parking lights. However, attaching lights to the wheel(s) of a vehicle has heretofore been problematic due to the rotation of the wheel(s) with respect to the vehicle's battery.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,230, which issued to Cummings et al., discloses a wheel lighting apparatus that draws power from a small DC battery mounted on the wheel. Unfortunately, such a wheel lighting apparatus has several shortcomings. Providing an extra battery for each wheel to be lit is costly and unnecessarily redundant when the vehicle already has a main DC battery. The size and therefore power of a wheel-mounted battery is severely limited. Care must be taken not to adversely impact the rotational balance of the wheel. Furthermore, a wheel-mounted battery is susceptible to damage from road debris or the high centrifugal forces produced as the wheel rotates.
Therefore, a primary object of this invention is the provision of an apparatus for lighting a rotatable wheel on a vehicle with electrical power from a battery that does not rotate with the wheel.
Another object of this invention is the provision of an apparatus for lighting a wheel of a vehicle wherein the main vehicle battery supplies direct current across a brush connection to power one or more lights installable on a commutator mounted on the rotatable wheel.
These and other objects will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the description which follows and the accompanying drawings.